What follows is a statement Gov. Charles Baker delivered prior to a press conference on Friday dealing with a marijuana legalization ballot question. Baker, who spoke without notes, seemed on the verge of tears, his voice  quivering.

I always look at these tragedies through my eyes as a father and as a son and as a sibling. The innocent people who died this week in Minnesota, Louisiana, and Texas are somebody’s son, daughter, father, friend, sibling. And for all the yelling and screaming, and all the blame that’s going to get thrown around in the next 24 to 48 hours, to the people who lost somebody who matters to them,  that is all going to seem pretty cheap. So what  I would ask, most of all, is for all of us to remember that these people have loved ones who just lost the most precious and important person in their life. Let’s give that the dignity and the honor and the respect that it deserves.

We can all talk about politics and policy and how as a country and as a community we can do better  working together. But don’t forget that these people had families, all of them. And in some of the most graphic footage I’ve ever seen in my life, we all watched the terrible tragedies that their families have been through play out in real time on a handheld device.  So my message is, please, give these people and their friends and their families the time that they deserve to be honored and remembered, and then we can get into the discussion about what we can do to make this a better country, a better community, and a better Commonwealth.